On Christmas Eve, before heading to church, the Johnson family of Loveland, Ohio, will celebrate at home — in their own chapel.

"We will light the candles and do a family Christmas devotion," Dona Johnson says.

The Johnsons — American Baptists — are weekly churchgoers, but they wanted a more immediate reminder of their faith.

So when they built an Arts & Crafts-style house a year ago on several woodsy acres, they made sure to include a chapel. The small room at the end of the hall is minimalist in design, with a stained-glass window, a kneeling bench, a small table with chairs and a cross made from an ancient red oak.

"Where better than in my own home to have a sacred environment?" Johnson asks. "Why do I have to drive anywhere when I can have a sacred space that I walk past and participate in every day?"

Though it's unclear how many people have a full-fledged chapel in their home, the number is undoubtedly low. The Johnson chapel is the first such private sanctuary created by Martha Schickel Dorff of Schickel Design, which specializes in liturgical design.

Still, carving out a spiritual space in the home, whether it be a separate room or a quiet corner, is increasingly common, says Peg Streep, author of Altars Made Easy and Spiritual Gardening.

"Six or seven years ago, when I said I was writing a book on altars and sacred spaces, people would say, 'Like in a church?' " Streep finds that people are no longer puzzled. "They say, 'Yes, of course,' or 'I have one.' "

Why the change? Eastern culture, which "doesn't distinguish between the sacred and the secular," has been a big influence, says Streep, whose own New York City apartment includes a combination indoor garden and Buddhist altar.

Some religions have strictures on the rites that can be performed in the home. For example, a Roman Catholic typically would not celebrate the Eucharist at home or get married there.

People are more likely to call their informal or unadorned space a prayer room — "a simple place set aside for prayer, scripture reading, personal devotion," says Patricia Morrison, an editor at the National Catholic Reporter, a weekly newspaper. "In the Catholic tradition, a chapel true and proper is where some formal liturgical function takes place."

Morrison, a former nun, always has had a prayer room. Currently, she uses a bedroom in her house in Overland Park, Kan.

Though the room is furnished in "early Salvation Army style," every item in it is significant to her. The room includes a kneeling bench given to her by a monk and a love seat that belonged to her mother.

Having a separate space for prayer is important, Morrison says. "In the living room, I would get easily distracted, like, 'It's really dusty; I should be cleaning.' It helps to say, 'This is the only thing this room is used for.' "

Farid Shafik, an ophthalmologist who is in the Coptic Orthodox church, always has had a prayer space, too. "It is incumbent in our tradition to have a place dedicated in each house to God," he says.

That home is under construction in Southington, Conn., where Shafik has established an eye surgery practice. When finished, the chapel will be a spacious 18-by-27 feet with several clover-cross windows and a copper dome topped by a bronze cross. The ornate interior will have carved wooden walls and a mosaic of Christ.

Shafik, whose family emigrated to the USA when he was 6, has fond memories of his family's one-bedroom apartment near Cairo. "There's nothing I remember more than this little alcove at the entrance with icons and candles and holy water," he says. "We would do our prayers in the morning and night as a family."

A home chapel was never part of the plan for Shirley Good and Marshall Voris, a husband-and-wife team of psychologists in Corpus Christi, Texas. But 10 years ago, while house hunting, they visited a large house that included a doctor's office. On the top floor was a big room with a stained-glass window. The two knew immediately that this was the house for them.

"When we saw it, we said, 'This is our house, and this has to be a chapel,' " says Good, whose husband had studied for the Catholic priesthood.

"I think the previous people had a pool table in there."

The room now has three pews arranged in a U-shape. Voris, who died of a heart attack in August, used the room daily, for prayer and contemplation.

"That was his favorite place," his wife says. "He found great solace there."